


the truth isn't so sweet

by Pupuni



Series: You’d be surprised what people will tell you for a cookie [1]
Category: Tangled: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, basically Varian just breaking down
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-23 07:02:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14929469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pupuni/pseuds/Pupuni
Summary: what if Varian had tried one of his cookies to see if they work before giving them to the guards?unfortunately it worked a little too well...this is one alternative scenario.





	the truth isn't so sweet

Varian began to form his plan, after several tests and searching in books he concluded that the fluid he found is a special Attitude-Reversing potion. He didn't know exactly how it had come to the stream near his house but he thanked his good luck.  
Varian is about to get his revenge.  
He went to the kitchen and looked for a recipe for cookies, he found an old recipe that belonged to his mother, and immediately felt a burst of nostalgia.  
Yes, it can work.  
After searching for several hours, he was able to find the ingredients he needed to replicate the small amount of potion he had.  
With some adjustments, Varian thought he could change this potion into truth serum.  
He studied books, tried various materials, and based on his previous knowledge and eventually held a test tube filled with light purple liquid with the smell of spices.  
Varian smiled with satisfaction.  
The alchemist went back to the kitchen and began to prepare the biscuit roll  which he would put the potion into.  
It wasn't so hard, not really that different from alchemy.  
Or at least that's what he thought until a burnt smell rose from the oven.  
"no no no!" Varian took the charred baking dish out of the oven and tried to blow the smoke away of his eyes

 

It took two more attempts until he succeeded, but at last the purple and delicious-looking cookies came out of the oven. Varian wiped the sweat from his forehead. The smell made his heart ache as he remembered the cookies his mother used to bake.

Rudinger ran to him pleading.

"Sorry, buddy," he said, "these cookies are not for you."

The raccoon let out a sad croon and continued to look at his owner with big, bugging eyes.

"Oh, come on, don't give me that look, we've got a few more apples in the storeroom, you can have them." The truth is that Varian didn't have too much food and that it was probably not wise of him to give all the apples they have left left to the raccoon. But he had a weakness for the little creature, he was the only one who stayed by his side.

Rudiger made happy noises and ran to his chubby feet to the storeroom.

 

Varian sighed. Soon his plan would be implemented , and soon he would make his father proud.  
But ... what if he failed in making the serum?  
It was the first time Varian had tried to create a truth serum, and from a potion he hadn't even created in the first place. It was also the first time he tried to bake a potion into something, what if it wouldn't work?  
Hesitantly, Varian picked up one of the cookies.  
Maybe he should try it himself? Just to make sure.  
He has no one to lie anyway now... So he figured it wouldn't hurt to try.  
Sure, he could try to give them to someone else and see if it worked on them, but he knew that many of Crona citizens didn't trust him and wouldn't take anything he offers them. Besides, he didn't want the word about someone giving suspicious cookies to start spreading before he could carry out his plan.  
(These were of course very persuasive and logical arguments and not at all excuses he told himself because he really wanted a cookie and it's been a long time that has passed since he had one.)  
Varian bit into the cookie. It was sweet and crunchy, and there were bits of nuts he'd picked up the other day. He also felt a touch of foreign taste he assumed was the potion. Varian could feel the effect of the compound spreading through his system. It won't be long before he finds out if he has succeeded.  
Varian ate the rest of the cookie and put the rest in a bag, he returned to the basement where his father was.

 

what should he do now? He didn't feel very different.  
he should probably try to lie.  
"I... love alchemy," he said. That sentence was true.  
"I think that... pears are disgusting" Yes, he never understood why people liked them.  
"I... hate Rapunzel" This sentence certainly wasn't a lie.  
"Well, I can't lie. The potion seemed to work,” Varian said to himself.  
Varian took his staff and the travel bag with all the things he thought he would need on the long way to Corona Castle. He wasn't going to go out now, of course, first he had to know how long the potion’s effect lasted.  
While he waited, Varian sank in thoughts . He worked on this plan for a long time, failure was not an option.

 

"Revenge will be worth it, everyone will pay for turning their backs on me." Varian looked at his father's crystal.

"You'll see dad, I'll make you proud, they'll pay for what they did to yo-" He couldn't  finish this sentence. Varian started to panic. "What? Uh, um" Varian tried to recover. "I'll show you it's not my fau-" Varian lost the ability to complete what he was trying to say again.

"But it's not-" he tried to shout but was cut. He began to shake. Rudinger looked at him anxiously.

"It's my fault." The words came out by themselves.

"this is all my fa…ult," he repeated, not wanting to believe what he just said.

"Why did I say that?!" He asked in a panic.

 

_No, no, it can't be._

 

His frustration grew. "But it-it's not-" Varian tried to deny but then corrected himself: "It's because of the compound I made." The boy was on the brink of tears.

"I couldn't handle the fact that I did this, so I blamed Rapunzel" he felt a burning in his heart with every word he was forced to say. "I couldn't face the fact that Dad got trapped because I, once again, _screwed up_ ."  
  
Rage began to pile up in his heart.  
"Darn those cookies!" he Screamed. "Darn this potion!"  
_This isn't a truth serum, there must have been a mistake in the making._ He tried to convince himself.  
"It's a truth potion and I know it because I made it myself. " But the potion’s effect worked again.

Varian sat and hugged his knees, he curled up into a ball. He tried to hide from everything, and especially from himself. The potion mercilessly broke all the mental barriers he had set for himself, all the walls that helped him cope with the terrible loss that had fallen upon him.

Varian covered his mouth with his hands but the words continued to come.

"I know it's true, but I don't want to hear that, I really, really don't want to hear it, why couldn't I stay away from the rocks like Dad said? Why couldn't I just listen to him? Dad said everything was under control, but he lied, he said things would work out but _he lied_ , I could not even trust _my own father_! "Varian now had to deal with all the thoughts he had pushed away to the edge of his mind.

He continued muttering, "But I still should have listened to him... I should have listened... I disappointed him again, it's all my fault ..."

Varian thought that even in prison he could not suffer a worse torture than what he had foolishly brought upon himself.

"If someone had done something before, if only Father wouldn't have hidden things from me... He said I wasn't ready to understand but he didn't explain to me why, he didn't explain to me why he doesn't do anything when our village was dying! He wasn't willing to listen... so I had to do something, and I did it to save this _odious_ kingdom." tears of rage fall from his eyes. Rodinger rubbed against his leg and crooned with worry.

"And they treated me like a criminal..." He gritted his teeth, he had flashbacks of the treatment he had received from Corona residents for the past few months, people had always thought he was dangerous, but since the rumor had begun to circulate that he attacked the princess things gotten way worse.

"What if they're right?" He suddenly thought. "What if I really am a criminal? What if I'm really dangerous for society? Look what I wanted to do now... Committing tre-aso…n" He stuttered. "lying... stealing the s-strong-est artifa-ct in all seven kingdoms..." He closed his eyes.

His anger rose, "What if I want to be dangerous!? What if I wanted to hurt them for what they did?! _They deserve it_." He clenched his fists with hatred.

Then he relaxed them and sighed, "But it's still my fault, my father's trapped because of what I did," Varian wanted to say a thousand different things, he wanted to deny, he wanted to say that it wasn't his fault, it couldn't be his fault, if only the Princess had help when he asked ...

"The princess had to save the whole kingdom… and I know it." He completed the thought aloud, with what he didn't want to admit.

"But I'm still mad! Because she _promised_ ! Because _she said we were_ _friends_! "Varian felt the familiar resentment that had accompanied him all along.

 

"but…"

Varian did everything he could to stop himself from uttering the next thought that was too terrible to digest it's full meaning, a thought he would have rather to burn completely in a little corner in his mind and forget but couldn't. And the worst thing about it was that he knew it was the truth:

 

**"Even if she would have came with me, it was still too late for Dad”**

 

Varian finally broke down.

He collapsed on the floor and began Sobbing. All he wanted was to disappear. Rudiger quickly wrapped himself around his collarbone and tried to wipe his tears with his paws. He crood comfortingly, there was nothing the Racoon wanted more than knowing how he could help his owner.

For a long time he didn't move from his place on Varian's shoulders and Varian  felt that his warm presence was the only thing left to connect him to reality.

 

When his mind became clear enough to think, he continued the same line of thought in a hollow voice. "Even if she would have came, Dad would have still got trapped, because of me." He sniffed. "I just... can't handle it ... I'm still angry at Rapunzel for not coming, for this whole  time... They just forgot about me completely... They didn't care enough to come. The only one who really cared for me was My father... and now I've lost him too... because of my actions." He said the last part with almost a whisper.

Rudiger thrust his face under Varian's chin.

"At least I didn't lose you, Rudiger." His lips twisted in the way that was closest to the smile he could make now. "Thank you." He hugged the raccoon.

 

Now, after Varian let out all his feelings, he felt as if a rock had been torn out of him, something he had kept deep under the layers on layers of denial and rage. He felt horrible and terrible and broken, but in a way, as if some kind of Borden was removed from his shoulders.

"I'm still mad, but more than I'm mad at the princess, I'm mad at myself." Varian heavily stood up on his feet.

"No wonder my father was never proud of me, I understand that now." He said wearily.

"I don't want to take revenge on them anymore, but-" He looked painfully at his father's crystal and took a deep breath, "-I still have to get Daddy back, I have to fix that mistake, even if it's the last thing I ever do."

He just couldn't imagine any other possibility.

"Even if I will never make him proud I can't let him pay for my mistakes.”

 

Varian is going to get the sundrop flower, even if he didn't want a revenge anymore.

Simply because he has no other choice.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't think that it's really Varian's fault-it was just a tragic accident. But I do think that deep down Varian beleives it's his fault but will never admit it... unless some chemical compound will force him to.


End file.
